Setting the tone for social justice

Neha Pradhan Arora

A child begging at a signal, a family living on the pavement, a daily wage labourer tirelessly working outdoors on a hot day, an old person shivering in a temporary shelter under the flyover in winter. We see situations like this every day around us and generally have one of the following reactions–
1. Turn away without paying too much attention.
2. Look and don’t get affected.
3. Feel sorry and then turn away.
4. Give something to the person(s) like money, material.

The need to respond with compassion, empathy and charity is something that has been a part of our teaching – learning in schools. Value education classes, community service, donation drives and assemblies in schools continue to reinforce the need to feel empathy and share or give to those who are ‘less-privileged’ or ‘less-fortunate’ than us. While this is a good starting point to build the value of empathy, it is important to truly understand what empathy means and why it is needed.

Empathy is the ability to feel, experience and understand a situation from another perspective. To feel the fear a child on the street feels, to feel the despair a farmer feels, to feel the anger the helpless labourer feels. To feel empathy also means to question and wonder why a situation is the way it is. To feel empathy means to acknowledge the privilege we received in the lottery of life and recognize the unfairness and injustice in a situation of ‘less privilege’ or ‘disadvantage’. To feel empathy hence also means to question inequality and understand what social justice means.

What does social justice really mean? It can best be understood as the web of societal relationships which determine access to wealth, opportunities and rights. It emphasizes that every human being must have equal access to health, education, well-being as a right. It stands for inclusion, equity and participation. Whether a society is just or not is determined by where the responsibility for everyone’s well-being lies. Does it lie with each individual, with fate, with the collective or with the State?

When we as individuals see a situation of poverty, of injustice or of inequality, the first reaction must be to address the immediate needs of the person or people but what is also necessary as a response is to question the situation and address the systemic causes of the same. This, one may say, seems to be the work of activists and social workers or advocates and not every citizen and definitely not every child.

What needs to be understood here is that when we nurture children to be compassionate and empathic and merely do their bit for the world by giving money, material and other goods, we continue to strengthen the imbalanced and inequal divisions in the world. The giving is individual dependent and what is received is charity. It is not acknowledged as a human right that belongs to and must be enjoyed by everyone. In order to work towards a world that is just, equitable and sustainable, we must begin to acknowledge and question issues of justice as they exist in our lives, our schools and our communities while becoming advocates of social change.

Benjamin Franklin said that “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” Education must help young people see injustice and understand injustice so they feel outrage and become true advocates of change in whatever way they can. Is this possible in our schools? Most teachers and parents fear that an education like this will create rebels and activists of our children. It will teach them to question rather than blindly accept and obey. It will teach them to explore multiple perspectives and include diverse voices rather than accept one voice and one narrative. It will teach them to voice their opinion and advocate for what they believe is right. In my experience as a social worker, an educator and a rebel, that should be the only education for any child.

The OECD’s (Organisation for Econonmic Cooperation and Development) PISA framework which is followed by many education systems of the world reinforces this by emphasizing the need for developing global competence, defined thus, “Global competence is the capacity to examine local, global and intercultural issues, to understand and appreciate the perspectives and world views of others, to engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions with people from different cultures, and to act for collective well-being and sustainable development.”*

The only way to achieve this is to embed issues of justice and the skills needed to become advocates in conversations, in the classroom, the curriculum and community engagement activities in our schools in simple and feasible but planned ways.

In the classroom
Issues of justice must be embedded in the curriculum in schools so that social justice is a part of classroom conversation in every subject and not just the responsibility of a chosen few. A mathematics teacher when teaching ratio-proportion can talk about the size of land holdings of a small farmer and what they produce in comparison to that of a large farmer. A chemistry teacher teaching about acids may mention the use of acid for violence against women. A dance teacher can encourage both boys and girls to learn different kinds of dance forms. A literature teacher can use stories of social and economic inequalities in class. A geography teacher must talk about the role of indigenous and tribal communities in the conservation of natural resources and the exploitation by commercial companies. The list of examples is endless – all it needs is for teachers to look at the world through the lens of social justice.

Building awareness on issues of justice must be supplemented with equipping children with the skills needed to take action on these issues. Writing letters, designing posters and creating role plays are used as tools in language and social sciences. When based on real world problems, these can also be assessed even in terms of the actual change they create. Projects and home assignments in all subjects, can be based on real world problems which explore issues of justice to make the learning relevant while embedding justice into the curriculum. The Sustainable Development Goals serve as a comprehensive framework to help teachers access data and real world case studies on issues of justice which have a global and local relevance. Given below are some resources for the same –
https://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/
https://www.globalgoals.org/
http://sdgtoolkit.org/tool/sdgs-for-kids/
http://niti.gov.in/content/sdg-india-index-baseline-report-2018
https://sdgindiaindex.socialcops.com/

In community engagement
Community service or social service which has traditionally been a part of most schools, needs to be redefined to ensure that action undertaken under this banner moves beyond acts of charity to advocacy. How is that possible? Community engagement or service learning as it can now be called is another space which facilitates real world exposure and interaction for the children.

Along with awareness on issues, it gives students a chance to witness real world problems and build a deeper understanding of complex social issues. They realize then that none of these problems has a simple, uni-dimensional solution. When students raise money for an oldage home and visit it, it is an opportunity for them to understand the absence of community systems that support senior citizens living alone and independently. A visit to an orphanage is an opportunity for students to understand the dangers to children in the world outside – abuse, exploitation, trafficking and the role we may be playing in the same knowingly or unknowingly. A fundraising drive for an NGO working with children with disabilities is an opportunity to understand the need for dignity, acceptance and systemic inclusive practices rather than pity and charity alone.

All of these actions or events or activities must therefore be preceded by awareness sessions or interactions with experts on these issues or teachers who are advocates for the particular issue. These actions must be followed by reflection, further study and questioning on the issue. This may result in simple behavioural changes in the students’ lives and strengthen their conviction and outrage. It is then that specific tools must be taught to the students that will help them become advocates to share what they think and work towards influencing, inspiring and initiating action for the issue, at a larger community level. Creative tools of campaigning using language, audio-visual media, performing arts, social media and community events can be developed and implemented by the children.

Partnering with NGOs in the town or city or projects in and around the school; who are already working on critical issues will help make the students’ action more effective, impactful and sustainable. Interactions with different stakeholders (children or adults) designed equitably using music, sports, stories or other tools are truly transformational rather than events that have a one-way transaction of giving or teaching.

Meaningful classroom learning and community engagement within the context of the local or global community will help to nurture the values of social justice and the commitment needed for advocacy. Apart from this, a similar approach reinforcing the constitutional values of justice and equality through policies and processes in the school for inclusion and participation will also help build a learning community of advocates for social justice and change. Because, while the world will continue to need doctors, engineers, teachers, musicians, data analysts, politicians, administrators and others which our education system aims to create; it needs each of them to also be advocates for a world that is just, equitable and sustainable, now and in the future.

Reference
* https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2018-global-competence.htm

The author is a creative and passionate educator and has worked in the education and development sector for over 15 years with a focus on building capacities of young people and teachers.

The photographs used in the article are all from the committed work being done in the schools as part of the Social Justice and Advocacy Programme.

This article is based on her work, since 2018 with the Edmund Rice Institutions / Christian Brother Schools in India. Write to her at neha.learningcommunities@gmail.com to learn more about her work.